Film Review: November (2017)
A bout of dangerous somnambulism, a doomed love story, automatons made from dark magic, and a girl-werewolf.
Estonia Director & Writer: Rainer Sarnet
Available on Shudder.
We open on an animated assortment of farm equipment on a mission. The creation is a kratt, a mythological creature created by trading one’s soul to the devil. It’s a short sighted deal: while kratt’s can increase a peasant’s immediate station, long term they must continue to be given tasks or the devil will come for his due. November is largely about the immediacy of its denizen’s needs. The peasants work, they pray, and still they receive nothing that they want or need and are subjugated by the wealthy and uncaring landowner whose daughter walks the manor roof while sleeping.
If it had not been shot in silvertone-esque black and white, this film would be gritty, dirty, better fitted to Werner Herzog’s earthly damnation stories. Taking a note from Béla Tarr, it instead imprints its subjects in a fairy tale land where no one has to quite live within the brutal physical realities of their station. We can see this kind of elevated exploration of peasant folklore and life in many films in recent history: Robert Eggers’ The VVitch comes to mind, as well as the richly imagined, but frustratingly sloppy Hagazussa by Lukas Feigelfeld as well.
